Living without conditions

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

We have discussed in previous classes the concept that every idea, every action, every thought ends in love. More than just love - it is unconditional, divine love.

As an example, let us say that we are learning to play the piano. Initially our body has to learn to place our fingers correctly, our feet to comfortably push the pedals and so on. As we progress, it is our mind that has to learn to focus and concentrate so as to play the piano without distraction and to learn the most effectively and efficiently. Next, there will be ‘aah’ moments of the heart where the piano is being played more intuitively and creatively with the heart. Finally, we realize that the highest experiences that we have in playing the piano are when they become effortless, where we are being powered by the universe or God and both we and the piano are instruments. This final stage comes about as a result of the flow of unconditional divine love.

You can reflect upon everything you do and realize that the same process is taking place. It might be as simple as walking the dog, or as seemingly convoluted as your career or goals at home.

For us to be more likely to be in the highest flow of love we must first understand that one of the most powerful components of this highest love is that it is unconditional.

Truly reflect for a moment and realize that most of our thoughts and actions are tied to conditions. ‘I work so I can have more money, so I can give my kids all the things I did not have’, ‘I am doing this job I hate, so that I can get the things I want’, ‘I love him in exactly the same measure he loves me’, ‘I am learning to play the guitar so I can impress my friends’ and so on.

Do you see the problem? All of our conditions tie us to time, tie us to our ego, tie us to expectations about what has to happen.

Real unconditional love is in the now, in this moment, with no conditions or expectations. It can not start until we abandon our conditions.

So take the time today to see how many condition-less actions you can take. Work with no thought of future gain or your expectations being met. You will immediately find that you will have more energy, have more fun and be more likely to work effortlessly, because you will not be working with the anchor of all your conditions and expectations.

So much of the noise in our lives is conditions and expectations. Our stress and anxiety are usually about what we expect to happen, and what we are anxious about not happening. Our impatience comes from, you guessed it, our conditions and expectations not being met in our timeframe.

Play the piano, not with the idea of some future fame or fortune, but just with the presence of being in the moment with no conditions and you might find that it is playing itself.

Walk the dog, not because you are meeting the expectations of others or of yourself, but simply because it is a moment to be simple and faithful and loyal to one another and experience the deep unconditional love of two souls in the moment.

Another place to practise unconditional actions is when you are exercising. Most of us exercise because we will become fitter or stronger, but just try exercising without those conditions, and you might even find that there is love there.

When you contemplate the beauty of condition-less living you will wonder how you ever lived any other way. Try giving anything without conditions and you will see a beautiful flower opening in your life. True you might find it hard - especially using money which is probably the hardest thing to give and receive unconditionally as it is so strongly and inherently tied to conditions. So try helping a friend unconditionally with some service. Mow their lawns. Bake them a cake or help them care for their children. Look for ways to be kind. Or even better, help a stranger.

Being condition less is not easy in the beginning, but it is the beginning of the highest experiences of our lives, the flow of real unconditional divine love.

Exercise 38 - letting go of the ego

Prepare for your meditation as usual

Please take a moment to breathe more slowly and deeply. To feel your thoughts slowing and deepening with your breath.

You are not your body, you are not your ego or your mind, you are your heart, your soul. The real you is deep within the inmost recesses of your heart and your body, mind and ego are the instruments of your soul.

For you to travel to the real you, you need to leave behind the ego's past. All that has happened has happened and now is just the pathway you have travelled, there is nothing to regret and no-one to blame. You also need to leave the ego's future. If you fear or are anxious about tomorrow, about what might happen, take this moment to realise that there is nothing to fear, you are infinitely, infinitely loved and the universe is caring for you, far more intimately than you imagine. The ego's impatience comes from its fears that its expectations may not be met, that the events of fate might not unfold exactly as it demands in the timeframe expected.

So what remains is this moment, and whether you realize it or not, the deeper you travel into this moment, the wider it opens until you will find there is all of eternity, but more than that there is this whole universe, not just the physical dimensions, but all the dimensions are within us. It is also the only place where real love, the highest love exists.

So take a moment to let your consciousness expand into this moment. Feel it peacefully drifting through love, expanding through eternity. Let your awareness leave the entrapment of the ego's past and future, and enter the soul's infinite and eternal universe.

Breathe deeply and feel yourself deeply, deeply in the flow of love. Realize that here, there are no conditions. There are no expectations. It is just being. Being the real you.

For the last part of the meditation, spend some time in contemplation. Allow yourself to gently reflect on all the ways your ego imposes conditions and expectations on your actions. Realize that this is the way it exists more and more strongly in your life. The more conditions and expectations you have in your life, the more egoic you will be.

As we deconstruct our expectations and conditions the more at peace we will be, the more in love we will be, the more in our soul, the more God-like we will be.

See yourself doing actions without conditions. Allowing yourself to be your real self, your soul..